Parmatech Celebrates 40th Anniversary
Pioneering metal injection molding company has continued to grow and innovate over the past four decades.
ATW Companies Inc. (Warwick, RI), a leading provider of custom manufactured metal components and services, announced that Parmatech, its custom manufactured metal injection molded (MIM) components and services subsidiary, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in business.
Parmatech Corporation (Petaluma, CA) is a pioneer in the MIM industry and has received numerous design competition awards. The company focuses on metal injection molding and secondary MIM operations for the medical, telecommunications, firearms, hand tools, semiconductor, and electronic packaging markets.
Parmatch uses MIM to produce complex shapes that can cost 20 to 50 percent of a machined part, producing far less material waste, with high production rates.
The company was founded in San Rafael, California, in 1973 by four entrepreneurs, specifically to develop and commercialize new powder injection molding (PIM) technology that showed great promise for producing ceramic capillaries for the booming semiconductor industry.
In 1980, Parmatech was granted the first MIM patent, and given exclusive manufacturing and licensing rights. MIM quickly found a niche in typewriter and dot matrix printer components. New markets followed, from disk drive components to parts for firearms.
The technology really took off after Parmatech won prestigious design awards from the Metal Powder Industry Federation (MPIF) for a 2-inch diameter ring-shaped screw seal used in the flap mechanism of Boeing 707 and 727 airliners, and for niobium-based alloy parts used in a Rocketdyne rocket thrust system.
The company was acquired by ATW in 2003 from Carpenter Technology, which had purchased the company in 1995. In 2009, Parmatech acquired the Proform metal injection molding operation of Morgan Advanced Ceramics (MAC), to add an East Coast presence to augment and complement its California-based MIM operation.
“It gives me a tremendous amount of pleasure to be celebrating this milestone with Parmatech,” said Peter C. Frost, president and chief executive officer of ATW Companies. “The company has received accolades and awards for its innovative approaches for its entire existence, and I am looking forward to expanding even further the library of successful solutions we have developed for our customers.”
Parmatech is planning several events to mark the anniversary, including celebrations honoring its customers, vendors, and employees.
